None of the 120 athletes, representing 32 nations, will become household names like Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps.

And let's face it, in coming days you'll likely forget the World Memory Championships, a three-day cerebral-taxing event at a conference centre in the London borough of Croydon.

But the remarkable stretches of mental prowess are worth expending grey matter on, because while you'll never beat Bolt on land or Phelps in water, the potential of your noggin is still up for debate.

Consider the abilities of our brains over brawn. During the championship, Johannes Mallow, a German competitor who reportedly has muscular dystrophy, broke a world record by recalling 501 digits -- all in order.

Though he says he still often forgets where he left his keys.

He and 17-year-old memory athlete Suvina Ng -- a Canadian living in Hong Kong -- use the same process we can all learn from.

"Imagine a familiar journey," Ng explains. "Now place (images of) the things you want to remember along that path."

Ng believes we've only begun to tap into our mental potential.

"People's brains do not have limits."

That's easy for a 17-year-old to say. However, mounting research suggests the young don't own a patent on recall.

Scientists at the University of California have trained seniors to outperform 20-year-old untrained test subjects on an online driving game demanding multi-tasking.

Even the mechanics of remembering are still being unravelled. Neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania and Freiburg University now say our brain cells "geotag" recollections -- which is why one memory often prompts another that took place in the same location.

Other studies are using everything from Vitamin D to spearmint extracts to prompt aging brains.

Tony Buzan, a 71-year-old Canadian-educated British consultant who's an authority on 'mind mapping' memory techniques, insists age isn't the great brain drain we think it is.

"The potential of the human brain is approaching infinity," he says, noting our brains don't work like filing cabinets, but rather more like lush retrieval systems largely based on imagination.

Though it doesn't help, says Buzan, that most children are taught with boring blue pens across rigid lined paper. Memories aren't constructed on such restraints.

Which is why the competitors who took part in the World Memory Championships are so remarkable.

Though Buzan believes they really represent the potential in all of our minds.